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I only visited Boston for a day so I can't really compare it to Atlanta. I will say I thought it was pretty nice. Especially around the Common area. There's plenty of history up there.

I did live in NYC for about a year so I do have some NE experience.

First let's get the obvious differences out of the way.

Weather-You get way more snow up there of course. It still gets fairly cold down here though. I used to compare the temps of NYC and ATL when I was up there and a lot of times the lows were as cold or even colder down here. However, it tended to warm up a good bit more down south as the day progressed. Those days where the temp keeps dropping from an am high are pretty rare down here. They seemed a lot more common up there. Perhaps it's due to being on the coast. Summers are just a little hotter and more humid here and they last about a month longer it seems. Daylight is longer down here too of course. I remember it getting dark by 4:00pm up there.

Interconnectivity-You can consider the area from Boston to D.C. one huge megacity with very little interruption. Atlanta is relatively isolated with Birmingham being the closest city of any considerable size. Transportation options are a bit more varied up there with trains and buses actually being practical. You could get by without a car in just about any of the medium to large cities that make up that megacity. You can barely get by without a car in the center of Atlanta, much less further out.

Cost-Of course everybody knows the NE is more expensive than the south but I think it's exaggerated at times. The main difference is in housing costs. The other stuff is usually just a tad bit more.

Some more subtle differences:
Culture-The south is usually slower paced and patience can come in handy at times. Sometimes the people are more gregarious and friendly but sometimes I'd trade some of that for a little more urgency. Not everyone is friendly and some can be downright rude so don't get the impression that everyone in the south is nice. Atlanta is a pretty fast paced place. Maybe not as fast as NYC or Chicago but maybe as fast as Boston.

City life-The NE definitely has more density and I think life in general is more city-centered than the south. The NE seems to concentrate a lot of its energy and attractions into its cities while those are more spread out in the south. The south still has that agrarian aspect as a prominent part of its psyche. I think the soul of the south is in small towns while the north's is in the major cities.

Atlanta is fast-paced for the American South--being the de-facto capital and primate city of the region and everything. However, I would not say it is as fast paced as Boston at all--uh, as if.

Atlanta is major world international city with easygoing southern style.

I'm certainly not being argumentative but what does "fast-paced" mean? For example, restaurant service is no slower in Atlanta, and people certainly don't walk, jog, drive, talk or return email or phone calls slower. I don't think we work less or piddle around more. The trains and buses and airplanes all stick to their schedules. And it's hard to think of Atlanta nightlife, news reports, policemen, construction crews or anything else as being slower than their counterparts in Boston.

I'm certainly not being argumentative but what does "fast-paced" mean? For example, restaurant service is no slower in Atlanta, and people certainly don't walk, jog, drive, talk or return email or phone calls slower. I don't think we work less or piddle around more. The trains and buses and airplanes all stick to their schedules. And it's hard to think of Atlanta nightlife, news reports, policemen, construction crews or anything else as being slower than their counterparts in Boston.

What's the diff?

The only way I can figure is that Boston is just more dense with many more people on the street at all times compared to Atlanta. Downtown Atlanta(and even midtown) is a ghost town compared to NE cities at just about anytime of day. Atlanta's energy is more dispersed and that makes it seem like there is less going on but I think overall it's at about the same level as Boston.

well in Boston during rush hour downtown, you can hardly walk around without someone bumping into you. And people will run over you to get to work. Not many people will just walk at a normal pace to get to work.

I completely agree about the level of street life. I guess I wasn't equating our relative dearth of pedestrian traffic with a "slow pace of life." Life can be frenetic here but we typically drive to our destinations rather than walking.

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